Theatre Scenes Turns 5

January 24, 2016

5 years ago to the day, I launched Theatre Scenes with a post that asked “Why Theatre, Why Now?“, a question that continues to grow in urgency. I had finished my Honours in Drama and would no longer be the Theatre Editor of Auckland Uni’s Craccum Magazine. I hoped that by starting Theatre Scenes I’d be able to keep reviewing and […]

This Week in the Theatre Scene: Feast on Theatre (14-20 October)

October 14, 2013

[by James Wenley] PICK: The Feast What are we Feasting on? Not one, not two, but three very different plays all in one evening: 1. Halfatasi by Refiner’s Fire Collective  2. The Soldier’s Heart and The Feathered Girl by Le Petit Workshop 3. The Clown That Ran Away From The Circus by Nikki Bennett and Company Who’s putting it on? In the kind of collaborative enterprise […]

Help Theatre Scenes’ Matt Baker get to Romania

October 8, 2013

Matt representing NZ at Romania Critic Seminar [by James Wenley] What’s Romanian theatre like these days? Theatre Scenes’ own Matt Baker is going to find out. Matt, the first kiwi member of the International Association of Theatre Critics, has been accepted to join young critics from around the world to take part in critic seminar in Romania in conjunction with the 23rd […]

Theatre Scenes does Fringe: Our Reviewers

February 15, 2013

Matt and James will exist on a diet of ink and sleep deprivation for the next month [by James Wenley] The dynamic duo of Matt Baker and James Wenley will be the Theatre Scenes reviewers of as much theatre during Auckland Fringe (and then Auckland Arts Festival) as they can get their critical little hands on. They will write regular […]

Welcome Matt Baker!

September 2, 2012

You might have noticed a new name appearing to the right of the reviews this week: Matt Baker. With the relentless pace of Auckland Theatre (January really is our only ‘quiet’ period these days), and the number of shows our small and busy team were having to turn down for coverage, Mr Baker has been invited to offer his critical […]

Welcome to the blog… Rosabel Tan!

February 27, 2012

I am incredibly excited to announce that Rosabel Tan has joined the team at Theatre Scenes as a reviewer. I’ve long admired Rosabel’s writing and reviews, previously having reviewed for The Lumiere Reader and Craccum magazine, where she was Theatre Editor from 2007-2008. Treating degrees like Pokémon, Rosabel has a BA/BCom majoring in English, psychology and marketing, a Master’s in psychology and, most […]

The Basement Fest, and TheatreScenes’ 100th blog!

October 6, 2011

Time to Celebrate! [by James Wenley] There’s a lot of good performance on at the moment. Too much. How can one get to it all? Auckland theatre – you need an ‘on demand’ service. Anything Goes is at the Civic, I haven’t yet managed to get to any of the Tempo Dance Festival at Q, there’s a myriad of performances […]

Which ALL BLACK would you like to see perform in a theatre show?

September 13, 2011

The First Asian AB Ticket Giveaway winner announced [by James Wenley] With theatre going a bit Rugby mad at the moment, I wondered what would happened if we put the boot on the other foot. To win tickets to The First Asian AB, performing this week at the Basement, I asked readers “Which ALL BLACK would you like to see […]

Welcome Sharu!

March 2, 2011

I am very excited to welcome Sharu Delilkan as a guest contributor and theatre reviewer for Theatre Scenes. She has been the freelance Entertainment editor for The Aucklander for the last 4+ years, writing about and promoting a huge number of arts events. She has a Bachelor of Science in Mass Communications (Journalism Major), was co-founder and managing director of […]

Why Theatre? Why Now?

January 24, 2011

The Polish Theatre Director Grotowski reckoned that all you need to create theatre is one spectator, and one performer. That’s theatre. Simple. Theatre is a survivor. Overcoming radical cultural change, political censorship, mangled Shakespeare productions and the rise and rise of film media, something about the art sees it arriving – still fighting – in Auckland, NZ in 2011.   […]